Analysis Security and discourse: the Israeli – Palestinian water conflict Christiane J. Fro ¨ hlich When conflictive viewpoints are discursively strengthened, they develop into a ‘conflict discourse’ with a specific discursive structure which perpetuates conflict, like the discursive securitisation of an issue for varying audiences. When they are weakened, however, societal discourse can potentially change so that agreement becomes possible again, thus achieving discursive conflict transformation. This article analyses the Israeli and the Palestinian water discourse. On both sides, the dominant discourse structures underscore the conflictive issues regarding the distribution of water between Israelis and Palestinians, thus making communication, let alone negotiation, downright impossible. While Palestinians regard the natural water resources as sufficient in principle and the existing scarcity as entirely politically induced, Israelis perceive the natural water resources as absolutely scarce while receiving major de-securitisation impulses from the possibility of desalination. In the respective (minor) counter-discourses, however, possible starting points for dialogue and conflict resolution are visible. Introduction The Israeli–Palestinian water conflict is based on the region’s geographical, climatic, hydro(geo)logical and demographic realities. These are factual circumstances; however, ISSN 1467-8802 print/ISSN 1478-1174 online/12/020123-26 q 2012 Conflict, Security and Development Group http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2012.688290 Dr Christiane J. Fro ¨ hlich holds a PhD in Sociology from Marburg University. She is a fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Peace Studies at Osnabrueck University, and specialises in discursive conflict transformation and resource conflicts, currently with a regional focus on the Middle East. CCSD 688290—30/4/2012—TFQCER—417580 Conflict, Security & Development 12:2 May 2012 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60